Forget Obamacare -- AI is driving the real health care transformation

The Washington fight over the future of Obamacare will have enormous repercussions for our health care system, which now accounts for nearly 18 percent of the U.S. economy. But that impact pales before the transformation already underway due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. AI and machine learning are forcing dramatic business model change for all the stakeholders in the health care system. What does AI (and machine learning) mean in the health care context? Simply put, it's the ability to aggregate newly available and vast amounts of disparate data from electronic health records, consumer media and purchasing trends, smart devices, the social sphere, and other sources to make predictions about patient outcomes.